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Weeknight Thai Chicken Meatball Khao Soi. This northern Thai inspired noodle soup is the simplest weeknight dinner. Made with flavorful Thai curry paste, coconut milk, and plenty of fresh herbs and lime juice. Toss in seared gingery chicken meatballs and plenty of delicious egg noodles, it’s hard to beat the easy Thai inspired soup. It’s the perfect any night of the week dinner that’s made in 30 minutes, hearty, cozy, and healthy too.
Say hello to my personal favorite recipe of the week. This soup is a combination of everything I love most. It’s colorful, hearty, full of so many vegetables, has crispy (flavorful) chicken meatballs, noodles, and truly the most delicious soup broth. If I wasn’t making a million other things every single week I would be making this soup on repeat. It’s one of my favorites…probably should have saved it for a possible future cookbook but I simply had to share.
Sooo, hopefully, that lets you know just how excited I am. I know this soup is different, but I beg you to try it.
The background + inspiration.
First, I want to share the background on Khao Soi, in case you’re unfamiliar with it. It’s a soup from Northern Thailand made with very specific Thai curry paste giving the soup its unique rich flavor. Additionally, it’s made with creamy coconut milk, which makes this more like a curry…but yet it’s still soup. Well actually, it’s somewhere in between the two!
After reading up on Khao Soi, I discovered there are actually a few variations throughout different parts of Thailand. Some parts of the country will use rice noodles, while others use egg noodles. However, the broth remains the same…curry paste and coconut milk. You can read up on the history here, if you’d like.
So the inspiration? Of course, it’s once again my brother, Brendan. He’s traveled to Thailand a few times now and each time he brings me curry paste and noodles. It’s like winning the lottery, I love him so much for it. Praying he and Lyn’s head back soon because my stash is currently gone.
Anyway, this is their favorite soup. I’ve made a couple versions of it now, one you can find in the Half Baked Harvest Super Simple Cookbook. But I think today’s version might just be my favorite…
My point is, I just love the meatballs in this version, they’re such a fun twist.
Here is how you make Thai Khao Soy.
Going to put this right out there before getting into details, this is not an authentic Khao Soi. This is just my take, it’s similar but different.
Moving along, aside from cooking the noodles, this soup is made entirely in one pot. The meatballs are the exact same mix that I used for my ginger sesame meatballs…ground chicken, green onions, garlic, and ginger. Roll this all together, then pan-fry the meatballs in a bit of olive oil to get them nice and crispy on the outside. Toss in some baby bok choy, or other greens of your liking, and sear them until they are crisp. At this point, you’ll remove everything from the pot so that the meatballs and greens don’t overcook or lose their crispness.
Next, you’ll want to sauté the Thai red curry paste for a minute or two before adding in the liquids. This will activate the flavors in the curry paste and give you a richer tasting broth. Now, just add in all the liquid, stir back in the meatballs and bok choy, and simmer everything together for a few minutes. You want the meatballs to cook fully through and the flavors in the soup to meld together.
While that’s happening, boil some egg noodles (or use rice noodles if you are gluten free). By the time the noodles are ready, the soup will be too!
Let’s talk about the toppings.
Because they are the best part! Well, maybe not the best part, but they contribute so much to this soup.
I am not shy with my toppings, I really like to layer them on. Use ingredients you love most, but here are my recommendations…plenty of fresh Thai basil, a generous handful of thinly sliced green onions, some very thinly sliced shallots (bonus points if you fry the shallots in oil first), lots of fresh-squeezed lime juice, and lastly – chili oil…lots and lots of chili oil.
For the chili oil, I simply make up a quick homemade batch, but you can easily use store-bought too. And if you can’t find any Thai basil, regular Italian basil works as well.
And that’s it, simple, so much flavor, quick, easy, extra color, and insanely good!
I really can’t begin to express just how good. If you loved my Thai ramen or my coconut milk braised chicken, I think you’ll also greatly enjoy this. Similar(ish) flavors, but very different dishes.
The broth, the crispy meatballs, the noodles, the toppings…everything all together. It is the BEST. Creamy, hinted with ginger and garlic, a touch spicy, a touch sweet, herby, salty, so perfect. Yeah, I think that pretty much sums this up. So how about a cozy bowl of Khao Soi tonight? You only need thirty minutes.
You can do it!
If you make this Weeknight Thai Chicken Meatball Khao Soi, be sure to leave a comment and/or give this recipe a rating! Above all, I love to hear from you guys and always do my best to respond to each and every comment. And of course, if you do make this recipe, don’t forget to tag me on Instagram! Looking through the photos of recipes you all have made is my favorite!
Weeknight Thai Chicken Meatball Khao Soi.
Servings: 6
Calories Per Serving: 636 kcal
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
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Ingredients
- 1 pound ground chicken
- 2 green onions, finely, chopped, plus more for serving
- 1 inch fresh ginger, grated
- 1 clove garlic, minced or grated
- black pepper
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 4 baby bok choy or 1 bunch kale, chopped
- 1/4 cup Thai red curry paste
- 2 (14-ounce) cans full-fat coconut milk
- 3 cups low-sodium chicken broth
- 3 tablespoons fish sauce (or low sodium soy sauce)
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1/4 cup each fresh cilantro and Thai or regular basil, chopped, plus more for serving
- 8 ounces egg or rice noodles
- sliced limes and thinly sliced shallots, for serving
- chili oil, for serving
Instructions
- 1. Add the chicken, green onions, ginger, garlic, and a pinch of pepper to a bowl. Mix until just combined. Coat your hands with a bit of oil, and roll the meat into tablespoon-size balls (will make 15-20 meatballs).2. Heat a large pot over medium-high heat and add 2 tablespoons oil. When the oil shimmers, add the meatballs and sear until crisp, about 4-5 minutes, turning them 2-3 times. Toss in the bok choy and cook 2 minutes more, until just charred on the edges. Transfer everything to a plate.3. To the same pot, add the remaining 1 tablespoon oil, and the curry paste. Cook until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Stir in the coconut milk, chicken broth, fish sauce, and honey. Slide the meatballs and bok choy back into the soup. Simmer over medium heat until the meatballs are cooked through, 5-8 minutes. Stir in the herbs. 4. Meanwhile, cook noodles according to package directions.5. Divide the noodles between bowls and ladle the soup over. Top each bowl as desired with basil, green onions, shallots, lime juice, and chili oil.
I’m thinking about making this with some chicken I grind up myself. Do you think grinding up all white meat would make for a dry meatball?
Hey Karin,
It should be okay! It’s in a soup so that should help:) I hope you love this recipe! xx
So delicious!! Those gingery meatballs! I was out of red curry so I used green curry, and it was phenomenal. Will definitely add this to the rotation.
Hey Andrew,
Happy Monday!! I appreciate you making this recipe and sharing your feedback, so glad it turned out well for you:)
These meatballs were delish (I actually ended up using a ground turkey sausage for a little more pepper flavor) but I found the broth pretty bland. I ended up adding about a whole lime’s juice and plenty of salt to it, as well as the chili oil when serving. With those additions it was scrummy!
Hey Morgan,
Happy Sunday!!💕 Thanks so much for trying this recipe out and sharing your feedback, so glad it was a hit! xx
This was so good! I didn’t have ground chicken, so I used chicken breasts. Once I had all the ingredients (except the bok choy) in the pot, I brought it to a boil & then added the chicken breasts for 10 minutes. I pulled them out, shredded them, and added them back in. I added the bok choy at the end. This soup was so flavorful & I honestly think I’ll stick with the chicken breasts in the future, just because it saves some time. I added all 3 T of fish sauce & it didn’t taste fishy at all, just added depth to the flavor.
Hey Nora,
Amazing!! Love to hear that you enjoyed this recipe, thank you so much for making it and your comment! xx
This was so delicious! My husband and I both loved it so much! I subbed in lacinto kale for the bok choy and I used a little less fish sauce because I was almost out, it was still delicious! I loved the bits of chopped ginger floating in the soup and the broth was so flavorful and rich! I will say it took me a bit longer to make than the recipe said, but not by much. Just make sure you chop all of your veg/herbs etc…before starting and maybe get the noodle water boiling in advance.
Hey Cheryl,
Happy Wednesday! ❄️ I appreciate you making this recipe and sharing your feedback, so glad to hear it turned out well for you! xT
About how much weight wise for baby bok choy I’m ordering online and only goes by weight each they are listing is 1lb
Hi Victoria,
So sorry, I really have no idea on the weight, I would probably say not more than 1 pound. Please let me know if you have any other questions, I hope you love this recipe! xx
What could you substitute for coconut milk? Would evaporated milk work?
Hey Cara,
Any other milk that you enjoy work work in place of the coconut milk. Please let me know if you have any other questions, I hope you love this recipe! xT
Made this with Kale and it was great! Loved it. Do you have trouble getting the meatballs to stay together? My ground chicken was good quality, organic but ground chicken always seems somewhat wetter than beef or pork to me.
Hey Mark,
Happy New Year!🎆🎈 I appreciate you making this recipe and your comment! So glad to hear it was enjoyed! You could add an egg to the meatballs to see if that helps! xx
Sorry. Bok choy. 🙄
Tieghan, I just happen to be in Chiang Mai Thailand right at this minute and plan on having this while here.Had it the last time I was here and loved it. Had green curry with chicken last night for dinner, and it was pretty good too!
Oh that’s awesome! Sounds like so much fun! Enjoy your time in Thailand Colleen! xT
Made this for dinner last night. Very tasty! I used only 1 tablespoon of fish sauce (otherwise it would have been too fishy for the hubby). Also, I skipped the honey. It was delicious, thanks for sharing!
Hey Beth,
Wonderful!! Thanks so much for making this recipe, I love to hear that it was enjoyed!! Happy Thanksgiving! 🦃
Just made it and it was delicious. Added some Chili garlic paste for a little kick.
Will make it again for sure!
Hey Anneke,
Happy Sunday!!❄️ I love to hear that this recipe was enjoyed, thanks so much for trying it out and sharing your feedback! xx
This was absolutely delicious!! Didn’t change a thing!
Hey Barb,
Happy Friday!! I am thrilled to hear that this recipe was a winner, thanks so much for making it and sharing your review:)
What can I use instead of bok chocolate and fish sauce in this delightful recipe? 🙂
Hi Judy,
You could use spinach in place of the bok choy and then soy sauce in place of the fish sauce. Please let me know if you have any other questions! xT
Loved this! I think the noodles I used were thinner than pictured, so I doubled the amount, which worked perfectly. And I doubled the meatballs, because teenage boys… Flavors were excellent. Everyone loved it – even the picky teenagers. They ate it too quickly, so I didn’t get a pic, but it presented beautifully. Adding this to the recipe box!
Hey Debra,
Happy Friday!🎃 I am delighted to hear that this recipe was enjoyed, thanks for trying it out and sharing your review! xx